| Archie Hastie |
 Archibald Hastie was born on Tuesday, 22nd June, 1915, in Shotts, North Lanarkshire. The forward signed for Donald Turner's Thistle on Friday, 18th August, 1933, having most recently been with Douglas Water Thistle. Aged 18, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 16th September, 1933, in a 3-0 defeat at home to St Johnstone in the SFL First Division. Archie scored his first goal for Thistle on Saturday, 27th October, 1934, in a 4-1 win at home to Airdrieonians in the SFL First Division. He scored the last of his 21 goals on Saturday, 15th August, 1936, in a 2-2 draw away to Queen's Park in the SFL First Division. He played his last game for the club on Saturday, 29th August, 1936, in a 1-0 defeat away to Kilmarnock in the SFL First Division, having appeared as a Jag on 69 occasions. His club-list included Douglas Water Thistle, Partick Thistle, Huddersfield Town, Motherwell, Bradford City, Plymouth Argyle and Selby Town. Archie died in 1988, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, aged 72 or 73. *
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 Shotts born inside left Archie joined the Jags from Douglas Water Thistle (a Lanarkshire junior side who became defunct in 1962) in August 1933. Archie came from a footballing family. His father Isaac was a goalkeeper with Airdrieonians. The teenager played 3 League matches in the 1933-34 season, with Johnny Ballantyne a hard act to displace. In 1934-35 he came into the side more often. 1934-35 was the season Thistle won a cup double - the Glasgow Cup and the Glasgow Merchants’ Charity Cup. Archie played in the 2 Merchants’ Cup matches, with Thistle beating Queen’s Park 2-1 in the final, but didn’t take part in the Glasgow Cup victory. Johnny Ballantyne took the number 10 jersey for the victory over Rangers. In the 1934-35 season Archie scored 12 goals, with Sandy McLennan coming top with 16, and Willie Miller next with 15. Good company to keep! He scored a double against Dunfermline in an SFL Division 1 match on 10 November 1934. He opened the scoring with a header in the SFL match at Firhill, in front of an 8,000 crowd. Dunfermline equalized, but Thistle then ran rampant, with further goals from Hunter Lyle getting 2, Willie Miller, Robert Regan and Archie notching up the final goal in the 7-1 victory. The following season saw Archie get 8 competitive goals, behind George Wylie, who got 21. Archie’s final match in Thistle colours was in August 1936, in a 2-2 draw away to Queen’s Park. He moved on to Huddersfield Town but found it hard to break into a good side the club had at that time. He made 13 appearances, before coming north the following season to join Motherwell. They too had a strong first 11, and he struggled for game time there. He moved on to Bradford City, where he was a player for the next decade, until 1948. During the war years Archie joined the Royal Navy. He was a seaman on HMS Whitehall, with the ship acting as a convoy escort for the Arctic convoys, having previously taken troops home from Dunkirk. She later acted as a convoy destroyer in the Atlantic. During this period he did manage to get a game for Plymouth Argyle as a guest player. Post war he returned to Bradford, and had a short spell with Selby Town. He returned to Bradford where he was a trainer with the club. Archie passed away in Bradford in 1988, aged 72/73. On account of his service during WWII, Archie is included in our feature piece, The Partick Thistle Returned →. |
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